Crash causes scare over smaller jets

The black box of the jet that crashed Tuesday night in Yichun, Heilongjiang province, is recovered on Wednesday. Provided to China Daily
Tuesday's plane crash has heightened passengers' concerns over the safety of regional jets, but it will not cast a negative image on China's feeder flights in the long run, experts said.

After the news of the air crash in Yichun broke on Tuesday night, many travelers paid attention to the size of the plane when booking air tickets.

Wang Ruyan, a 25-year-old Beijing resident, said she will choose to fly on large aircrafts only, even if the ticket price is higher.

The ERJ-190 model jet, the kind that crashed on Tuesday in Yichun of Northeast China's Heilongjiang province, is a 104-seat regional jet serving the shorter-range regional routes between second-tier cities.

"I always worry about safety issues when flying on a small airplane, and this accident has added to my worries," she said.

"When my travel time is less than 10 hours, I will definitely consider ground transportation first," she said.

Li Xiaojin, a professor with the Civil Aviation University of China, said that the disaster no doubt will exert a bad influence on regional airlines for a short time period.

But in the long run, the development of regional airlines will be unaffected, he said.

In addition, the accident will push the regional airline companies to strengthen their safety management, which will benefit the civil aviation industry in the long run, he said.

China is one of the world's largest aircraft consumer markets. An industry report conducted by Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) in 2009 shows that China needs to add 874 regional jets by 2028.

Embraer, the Brazilian aerospace conglomerate that makes the ERJ-190, has also painted a rosy picture of the China market in the next 20 years.

An Embraer report said that by 2028, China will have a 1,000-strong fleet of short-distance turbine jets with seat capacities ranging from 30 to 120.

Two airlines on the mainland are regarded as important clients of Embraer - Henan Airlines with five ERJ-190 jets and Tianjin Airlines with a fleet of 25 such jets.

According to an introduction on the website of Tianjin Airlines, the carrier expects to expand its fleet to include 60 ERJ-190 jets by the end of 2013.

But Tuesday's crash might deal a heavy blow to Embraer's expansion plan in China.

Domestic aviation insiders said the accident might result in domestically made regional jets becoming stronger in their home markets.

"It might be an opportunity to promote domestically-made regional aircrafts, since they have no major accident records in recent years," Zhang Qian, an assistant project manager of AVIC International Corporation, said.

China started to produce its own regional aircraft - "Modern Ark 60 (MA60)" - in 2000 in Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi province in Northwest China.

As of last year, the Xi'an-based factory has received at least 162 orders for the MA60. The factory first delivered two MA60s abroad to Zimbabwe in April 2005.

Source: China Daily